On Sunday, the Canadians won gold at the Women’s World Cup. Thursday, they allowed the Montreal team to defeat the Minnesota team.
- Marie-Philip Poulin: 1 goal, 2 assists
- Erin Ambrose: 4 assists
- Kristin O’Neill: 2 goals
- Laura Stacey: 1 goal, 2 assists
The Canadian team players clearly didn’t have enough. From the moment they put their skates on the ice rink at the Verdun Auditorium on Thursday evening, they adopted the same frantic pace as that of the final against the Americans, except that this time, they wore their burgundy uniform .
Thanks to them, Montreal had the upper hand 4-3 against Minnesota. Literally no other player on the team recorded a point in the game. Ironically, five players from the American team are part of the Minnesota squad…
This duel was the first game of the home stretch for the playoffs. A victory could only be profitable in view of Saturday’s meeting at the Bell Centre, when Toronto, which occupies first place in the circuit, will be in town.
Until there were only three minutes left, we believed that Montreal would lose its fifth game in a row.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Marie-Philip Poulin
But it would be a lack of knowledge of Poulin, O’Neill, Stacey and Ambrose to believe that they would slow down – or slow down. The four teammates, who are the only ones from Kori Cheverie’s squad to have played matches in the last three weeks, gave Montreal a 2-0 lead in the first period. Minnesota came from behind to take a 3-2 lead in the third period.
As mentioned, there were less than three minutes left on the clock when Cheverie pulled his goalie. With six players, Stacey scored with a powerful slap shot — “A missile,” said the visitors’ head coach, Ken Klee.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The crowd exploded.
1 min 30 sec. later, O’Neill scored with a shot from the slot.
The crowd exploded (repeat).
Finally
Kori Cheverie’s squad also took advantage of this meeting to settle one thing that could not be more important for the playoffs: the numerical advantage.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The head coach of the Montreal team, Kori Cheverie
Before this meeting, she had only scored 5 goals in 62 occasions, a very slim success rate of 8.1%. On Thursday night alone, she scored three times in four chances.
With Poulin, Ambrose, Stacey and O’Neill on the first wave, it was only a matter of time before things broke out.
“We’ve tried this strategy before! The passes were really solid today,” suggested the head coach.
“I think it’s one of the best numerical advantages we’ve had this season,” Poulin said. The passes were quick, we moved the puck quickly. […] We are not satisfied either, we want to continue. »
O’Neill, freer
Before this match, Kristin O’Neill had scored 1 goal and 4 assists in 18 games. The 26-year-old striker did everything well, without necessarily getting on the scoresheet.
At the World Championships, O’Neill contributed to Canada’s success by scoring two goals and three assists in seven games.
On Thursday, she scored twice on the power play, including the winning goal.
What has happened in recent weeks?
“Being able to contribute offensively at Worlds really helped my confidence,” said the main interested party. I made it one of my goals to bring this confidence back to Montreal. »
“We knew it was there,” Cheverie said. She was so defensive that most of the time she was thinking about defending. […] She almost withdrew from offensive opportunities. »
“She allows herself to play a little more freely and that led to some offense,” she added.
An offensive release from O’Neill can only be positive for Montreal at this point in the season.
A boost of confidence
With all that, Montreal will play its long-awaited match at the Bell Center on Saturday, in front of a packed house of more than 21,000 spectators. It will obviously be a great moment for the whole team. And certainly Thursday’s victory brings renewed confidence in view of this duel against the Toronto rivals.
“We needed this victory,” Cheverie summed up with a smile.
When it was mentioned that Toronto had lost its game on Thursday, the head coach smiled again.
“I knew that. It’s good ! » she exclaimed before specifying: “statistically speaking. »